donal brown

In response to the federal grand jury indictment of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act, the RCFP answers eight frequently asked questions on the charges including “Does it mater if Julian Assange is a journalist?” and “Does the First Amendment apply to the publication of government secrets?” The RCFP then offers an extended analysis of the charges and  general allegations. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, May 30, 2019, by Gabe Rottman)

In indicting WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, the U.S. government has embarked on an unprecedented use of the espionage charge, never before brought against publishers of stolen secret documents. The government is expected to argue that Assange encouraged the leaks, damaged national security and is not truly a journalist. Assange’s defense team may refer to the Supreme Court ruling that publication of legally obtained information is protected even if the information was obtained by unlawful means and

Riana Pfefferkorn of The Center for Internet and Society, May 21, 2019, has failed to obtain court records on surveillance  in the Northern District of California even though the public is entitled to the records that are under seal but no longer need to be sealed. The judge ruled there was no First Amendment right to the records. In Pfefferkorn’s favor, the judge rejected the government’s argument that administrative burdens did not cancel out a constitutional

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a claim of an Alaska man who said he was arrested as retaliation for exercising his free speech rights. The court said the police could arrest someone for probable cause free from threat of retaliatory claims. The court reversed a finding by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that probable cause did not rule out a claim of retaliatory arrest. (WRAL.com, May 28, 2019, by Ariane de Vogue and

The San Francisco Police Chief William Scott defended a police raid of a journalist’s home by contending that free-lance journalist Bryan Carmody was the subject of a criminal investigation for possibly paying a city employee for a police report on the sudden death of Public Defender Jeff Adachi.  (San Jose Mercury News, May 21, 2019. by Thomas Peele) The police regarded the report as part of an ongoing investigation so not a public document, but